© Siddharth Gangadhar
ITTC
Project Scheduling and Gantt Charts
Siddharth Gangadhar Dr. Prasad Kulkarni
Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science Lab Presentation
siddharth@ku.edu prasadk@ku.edu
© Siddharth Gangadhar
ITTC
Project Scheduling and Gantt Charts
Outline
• What is project scheduling? • Project scheduling techniques • Gantt charts
• Project scheduling and Gantt charts software • References
© Siddharth Gangadhar
ITTC
Project Scheduling and Gantt Charts
What is Project Scheduling?
• What is project scheduling?
• Project scheduling techniques • Gantt charts
• Project scheduling and Gantt charts software • References
© Siddharth Gangadhar
ITTC
What is Project Scheduling?
What is a project?
• What is a project
– collection of tasks to be completed preferably
• in minimal time • and minimal cost
• Examples of projects
– software implementation – research paper
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ITTC
What is Project Scheduling?
Project Statistics
• Only 2.5% of companies successfully complete
– 100% of projects [source]
• Average cost overrun of all projects is 27% [source] • 39% of projects fail due to lack of planning
– resources and activities [source]
• One in six IT projects
– average cost overrun of 200% – schedule overrun of 70% [source]
© Siddharth Gangadhar
ITTC
What is Project Scheduling?
Objectives of Project Scheduling
• Completion of tasks– in minimal time or at minimal cost – in presence of task dependencies
• Likelihood of project completion in a given period
– extremely hard optimization scenario
– constraints such as time, money, resources and reqs.
• Finding minimum cost schedule for project comp.
© Siddharth Gangadhar
ITTC
What is Project Scheduling?
Aspects of Project Scheduling
• Agree on objectives for the project
– product features and their requirements
• Finalize resources
– human, system and monetary
• Identify task relationships
– helpful in scheduling tasks
• Determine task time to completion
– and associated costs
• Critical task determination
© Siddharth Gangadhar
ITTC
Project Scheduling and Gantt Charts
Project Scheduling Techniques
• What is project scheduling?
• Project scheduling techniques
• Gantt charts
• Project scheduling and Gantt charts software • References
© Siddharth Gangadhar
ITTC
Project Scheduling Techniques
List of Project Scheduling Techniques
• Mathematical Analysis (Network diagrams)– Critical Path Method
– Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) – Graphical Evaluation and Review Technique (GERT)
• Bar Charts
– Bar charts – Gantt charts
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Project Scheduling Techniques
Critical Path Method (CPM)
• Joint venture between Dupont and Remington Rand • Sequential activities from start to finish of project • EF, ES, LF, LS are important variables
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ITTC
Project Scheduling Techniques
PERT
• Developed by US navy in 1950s • Usage of a time variance
– probabilistic approach to activity estimation
• Pessimistic time, Most likely time and Optimistic time • Cannot be used for time/cost tradeoff analysis
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ITTC
Project Scheduling Techniques
GERT
• Proven less accurate than CPM and PERT • Probabilistic treatment of network logic
– and activity duration estimates
• Applied on subset of project activities
– invariably applied in loops
• Node state reached
– when a subset of its predecessors are completed
© Siddharth Gangadhar
ITTC
Project Scheduling Techniques
Bar Charts
• Visual representation of project status
• Visualize the temporal relation of processes
– among different group members
• Manage project deadlines for Project Manager • Coloring depicts the state of a particular process
– font also used for depicting state
• Support for process dependencies
• BSCW – Basic Support for Cooperative Work
© Siddharth Gangadhar
ITTC
Project Scheduling and Gantt Charts
Gantt Charts
• What is project scheduling? • Project scheduling techniques
• Gantt charts
• Project scheduling and Gantt charts software • References
© Siddharth Gangadhar
ITTC
Gantt Charts
What are Gantt Charts?
• Special version of bar chart– Henry Gantt around 1910s
• What a Gantt chart shows
– different activities
– length of activities along with start and end times – their dependencies
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ITTC
Gantt Charts
A Typical Gantt Chart
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Gantt Charts
Creating Gantt Charts I
• Define project settings– start date, end date and scheduling mode
• Define project calendar
• Define task names and their durations
• Resources finalized and made as a list for distribution
– if resource person, number of hours for particular task – associated cost of resource included
• Create dependencies between tasks
– arrowheads join tasks to each other
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ITTC
Gantt Charts
Creating Gantt Charts II
• Add necessary constraints to each task– cost or temporal constraints most common – Start No Later Than (SNLT), SNET, MSO
• Add more information/comments to chart
– add details as comments to tasks – highlight critical path
– prioritize tasks
© Siddharth Gangadhar
ITTC
Project Scheduling and Gantt Charts
Project Scheduling and Gantt Charts Software
• What is project scheduling? • Project scheduling techniques • Gantt charts
• Project scheduling and Gantt charts software
© Siddharth Gangadhar
ITTC
Project Sch. and Gantt Charts SW
Trello
• Free web based project management tool
– https://trello.com/
• Uses Kanban paradigm for management
– originally used by Toyota for production
• Trello terminology
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ITTC
Project Sch. and Gantt Charts SW
BaseCamp
• Company started in 2005
– https://basecamp.com/
• 60 day free trial period
– 10 projects with 3 GB storage is $20/month
• Nice email integration
– task addition, discussion updates and progress updates
• Strong user permissions feature
– permissions provided depending on user roles
• Missing Gantt chart integration
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ITTC
Project Sch. and Gantt Charts SW
ganttproject.biz
• www.ganttproject.biz
– desktop based free Gantt application
• Creation of tasks and milestones • Task organization
– in a work breakdown structure
• PERT support included • Other features
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ITTC
Project Sch. and Gantt Charts SW
LibrePlan
• Open source web based Gantt application
– www.libreplan.com
• Forward and Backward allocation model supported • Positioning constraints supported
© Siddharth Gangadhar
ITTC
Project Scheduling and Gantt Charts
References
• What is project scheduling? • Project scheduling techniques • Gantt charts
• Project scheduling and Gantt charts software
© Siddharth Gangadhar
ITTC
Project Scheduling and Gantt Charts
References
• [CPM-01] http://www.tutorialspoint.com/management_concepts/critical_path_method.htm • [PERT-01] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Program_evaluation_and_review_technique • www.business.unr.edu/faculty/rtl/701/ppt/02-ProjSch-09.ppt • web.ntpu.edu.tw/~juang/ms/CH05.ppt • amutiara.staff.gunadarma.ac.id/Downloads/files/3270/08-scheduling.ppt • [Gantt-01] http://www.gantt.com/ • [Trello-01] http://wpcurve.com/trello-for-project-management/ • [LP-01] http://www.libreplan.com/features/plan/© Siddharth Gangadhar
